Ezra had a lot of things on his plate. First was planning for the new structure to be built, and next was the exam for the students so the castle could formally recommend them to employers.
Right now, the major problem everyone faced was logistics. The demand for paper had started to skyrocket. Thankfully, the influx of merchants hadn't raised the price of paper too much yet, but the impending shortage had to be addressed.
Ezra woke up early and after his routine he went to the Press Office.
"Lord Blackfyre wants to see you, Milord," Hugo said, meeting Ezra as he entered the office. "He says he is in the council chambers."
Ezra nodded. He knew this was coming sooner or later. He had already complained to his father about the impending paper shortage, and Reitz had told him he would fix it. Reitz had come to dinner increasingly sparingly over the past few days, though the night before had been one of the exceptions.
Ezra headed toward the council chambers. When he reached the doors, two guards opened them for him.
Reitz nodded to him once and gestured. "Take a seat, Ezra."
Somehow, somewhere between the first time he showed them how the ink press worked and the time he had been given his own office inside the castle, the other council members had come to accept Ezra's presence in these meetings. Doubly so after he introduced the arithmetic and accounting books they were about to discuss today.
Today, the only people present aside from Ezra were the Corvin, Draffen, and Kestel.
"Alright," Reitz finally said. This marked the formal start of the meeting. "Maester Rowan, you had the reports for me?"
"Indeed," Rowan said. "The petitions for duplication have kept rising ever since the heralds made the formal announcement that Castle Blackfyre is processing outside requests." Kestel threw a glance at Corvin, who nodded once.
"So," Reitz said, looking between them. "Are we running out because of the merchants, or are we running out because of the amount of paper our own offices are using?"
A silence persisted for a time.
Corvin broke it. "My lord, while it is true that the castle operations have certainly taken a chunk of our paper inventory, it should be known that paper for official castle utility is out of necessity and not want." Corvin paused.
Ezra knew that while this was true now, what was treated as a luxury before had quickly become a necessity. They had found so many things to do with the press: pressing notices, sending them to the guilds, forwarding writs, and keeping copies of Imperial writs. The ones who used it the most were Kestel and Corvin.
"Very well, when do you estimate that our paper will run out?"
"With the way we are using it, we are going to run out in around two months if we ration it."
"If we didn't?"
"Two weeks, maybe four."
Reitz's face soured.
"What about our purchase orders? The deliveries haven't been made yet?"
"No, sire. All of the deliveries going through Loria are being stalled. They are being scrutinized heavily. I have heard that tolls for anything going to Fulmen are being inflated. The closest paper makers can only be reached through Lorian passes."
"Tsk." Reitz clicked his tongue.
"Can't we make them reroute to go through Pharae?"
"We have communicated this to the paper guild, my lord. However, they said that this would make the delivery time much longer, and they would need more coin for the transport."
Reitz sighed.
"Doesn't Fulmen have its own mill? I mean, a paper-making place?" Ezra asked.
Reitz shook his head. "No, Ezra, we don't. I don't know the specifics of it, but I think Maester Draffen can tell you."
Reitz looked at Draffen to cue him to speak.
Draffen cleared his throat and then spoke. "Lord Ezra, the reason why there are no such fabricae here is that there is a specific type of plant grown where the papermakers reside. Deeper into the heartland of the Rex Imperium, there is a plant whose tubers are crushed. This plant is what makes the pulp bind the fibers, to my knowledge. I know this because I grew up in a viscounty where paper was one of the industries we had."
"Hmm," Ezra mused. "Can you give me some coin for this, Lord Father? I think we will be able to make our own if you give me time and some resources."
Reitz, Corvin, and Draffen looked at him.
"How much do you need?" asked Reitz.
"Not... not much. Just enough to prove that we can make our own."
"That's fine, then." Reitz looked at Ezra and nodded. "Just talk to Corvin for coin and Draffen for everything else separately."
"We still need to solve the immediate demand first," Reitz mused.
"The publication and copy requests eat up a considerable margin of the paper that is used," Kestel said.
"If that is the case, then why don't we just tell them to bring their own paper depending on how many copies and how many books they want?" Reitz said.
"That sounds good, sire," Corvin seconded, bobbing his head in an almost exaggerated manner. "We should also announce that we will prioritize the merchants who bring their own paper for copying."
"We'll have the heralds announce this today, sire," Kestel said and nodded.
"Good, now that that is settled. We are here for the merchants to acquire the books and the lessons. Have we properly set that up?"
"Currently we can do this in the administrative buildings per district, but a structure they can go physically would help." Kestel said.
"So, by the way who is heading this?" Asked Reitz.
There was a silence again for a beat. No one was answering.
Draffen chose to answer Reitz, "Lord Blackfyre, If I may. What we are going to offer is novel, we are not offering goods. We are offering a service to the merchants who want to use our scribe's time. We can treat and structure this like how temples charge for clergymen's services. "
Reitz nodded, "so we will charge by the day?"
"Yes, My lord," Corvin answered.
"Also I think we should involve Maester Grimfire here. If we look how this is structured, the Master of Instruction's office is the closest fit." Draffen suggested.
There was a slight pause but Kestel interjected. "It is Maester Draffen, but the nature of the office is the reverse of what we are to offer. The Master of Instruction's office does not deal with this sort. It handles the recruitment and training of our Knights. It does not deal with general instruction... by its very nature it contradicts the service. It definitely has some overlap but I believe that the Office should focus more on strengthening our arms rather than dealing with laymen."
Draffen frowned, "I think that it would not hurt in giving the responsibility to someone seasoned in giving instruction," his voice gruff. "The office has experience with administering tests, especially to squires and knights in training. I think the office can handle parts of the responsibilities at least."
"There are key differences in how this new institution must operate," Kestel said. He tapped a finger against the heavy table. "First, the payment. We have no prior basis for this. The Master of Instruction's office is not structured to receive revenue. They have a set expenditure handled by the Master of Coin."
Kestel glanced at Corvin, then looked back to Draffen.
"Next, it is not structured to handle commoners or merchants," Kestel continued. "Their primary mode of instruction pertains to military, not civil affairs."
He picked up his quill, rolling the wooden shaft between his fingers.
"They have good teachers, but they are not acquainted with the new methods from the two books. Finally, their style of instruction contradicts what the Press Office has established, and that is exactly what the merchants are going to pay for."
Kestel glanced at Ezra briefly.
"The teaching style employed by the Press office is a single Instructor among multiple students. This style of teaching is much more different than what we are accustomed to and more akin to the style of the Theladonian's Agoge."
"Still there is great overlap. Teaching is teaching. Maester Grimfire's teachers can teach multitude as demonstrated when they are doing drills. And besides do not forget that Maester Grimfire's office doesn't just oversees the education of Knight's but oversees the education of the commoner men-at-arms as well."
"They liaise with the Keeper of the Peace for that, you know, Maester Draffen," Kestel's tone slightly raised. "When they teach en masse they only do drills not vocabulary. This is a different mode of instruction master Draffen. Also the load that the Office already bears is already great. It also poses risk to expose our own military strength and secrets if we have the instructors teach merchants that herald from even outside the empire."
"I think with just a little more training, the office can take the responsibility. It is the closest to what the merchants want." Draffen snorted.
"Maesters I think we can all agree that my question isn't answered. Who is going to head this? While this could fall under the jurisdiction of the Master of Instruction because of the structure, but we don't exactly have a handle on how the instruction will proceed. It overlaps with the Press Office, since the scribes who will be teaching are employed there. But the logistics of it blur the lines."
Ezra sighed. "Fine. I can oversee it. I have an idea of how it can work. But I think it would still be best to loop in Maester Grimfire." Ezra glanced at Draffen, "I would be more comfortable if he is involved."
Draffen nodded once at Ezra.
Reitz grinned.
"But I have conditions."
Reitz's grin slightly faded. "What are they, then?"
"First, there will be two structures. You will not take the budget from the first building I proposed. Since this is starting to become a proper academy—ah, I mean, since we need a different structure from my initial proposal, I want the other structure to be located in the outer ring. You cannot reduce the budget of the first building for the second one."
Reitz looked to the side, contemplating as if to calculate the costs and the benefits. "Fine."
"Next, I want a whole separate budget allocated directly to the Press Office. Right now, I have to keep asking Maester Corvin for coin for every little thing. He has been fair to me by having separate accounts for the publishing matters, the scribes' wages, and the ink and resin sheets. But every time I have to go to him, it slows me down."
Ezra knew this was a gamble. He knew the whole council had already started to take his opinions seriously, especially after the success of the new blast furnace. He just didn't know if Reitz would approve. Having a separate budget meant the Press Office wasn't just an office in name anymore, but a distinct entity with its own allocated coin mandated by the castle itself. It meant total independence in operation and answerable only to an audit.
Reitz thought about it. He looked at Ezra, then looked at Corvin, and then closed his eyes.
It seemed like Reitz wasn't going to budge. Ezra knew that, in the end, Reitz could appoint someone else to manage it. However, he also knew that he was the mastermind behind this, and Reitz knew Ezra was the one who best understood how to execute it.
Reitz's silence persisted.
"The Press Office will also oversee the standardization and administration of the exams, so we can have another avenue of revenue," Ezra blurted out. This was a headache he was willing to take, just so he could secure the Press's true independence.
"Alright," Reitz finally spoke. "If, we didn't expect so much coin going in from the blast furnace, I wouldn't have allowed it."
"Here on in the standing of the Press Office will be the same as the other castle offices. The office will have a separate budget for the year and will be answering to no one else but the Lord. On paper I will still be the head, so that would be alright."
Reitz said finally conceding with at nod.
When Ezra, Corvin and Draffen had already settled a defined allocation of work. Ezra visited Kestel's office after that It was decided that two simultaneous structures would be built. The first one of which was a building in the outer ring and the other a building for the Press Office which would have a lot of different functions. Draffen was already familiar with what Ezra had wanted.
Draffen had picked picked a team consisting of masons, carpenters. Draffen even allocated Albrecht to this new building because Ezra knew him and would trust him better. As for the outer ring building where the children and merchants could be housed, he made a different team. The materials that were approved for this site were much lower of a quality than for Ezra's base of operations. That didn't mean they were bad materials. It just so happens that the requirements for the original office building that Ezra had were much higher because. In Ezra's mind he wanted it to be expandable to upto fifteen floors.
It was decided that the office building would be erected in in one of the vacants spots that was still not filled from the battle with Catalyna. A few lots that were lumped together were still free.
Ezra had decided to go to the site.
What he saw was line after line of men hauling stone in and another line also hauling dirt out.
There were plenty of diggers already on site. Albrecht had marked the site together with his apprentices for a few days already.
"Master surveyor Albrecht," Ezra greeted. "How goes the construction?"
Albrecht stood near the edge of the pit. He was checking a taut string line, holding a wooden rod with etched millimeter marks.
"Lord Ezra," Albrecht bowed.
Albrecht pointed his rod down into the deepest trench. "The diggers are fifty men strong. We hit heavy clay yesterday. It slows the shovels. The dirt clings to the iron shoes."
"Are we near bedrock?" Ezra asked.
"Another week of digging if the weather holds, My lord," Albrecht said. His voice was flat. "The footprint is exactly as what are in the plans. But the foundation lines for the stair core... it is a massive hole to carve out by hand, Milord. It requires more depth than a castle keep."
"It's needed," Ezra said, nodding. "It needs to hold the whole building."
"It will hold a whole mountain steady, m'lord," Albrecht chuckled.
Albrecht didn't ask why the plans had made it so. He had assumed that this was one of the new plans that Draffen had discussed with him earlier. They had talked about the possibilities of a theoretical design that someone called "Master Faraday" had done. Albrecht turned and pointed his rod toward a massive pile of timber waiting near the lot.
"The carpenters are cutting the forms for the poured stone," Albrecht said. "And the masons have seen the notes. They say it is mortar work, not real building."
"I think we can verify it when it's done," Ezra said.
"It's Castle Blackfyre's coin, Milord. I am but here to give advice, as long as materials aren't cut for the final structure, I will not complain." Albrecht nodded as he chuckled again and then eyed the pit.
"The forms are being made exactly to the millimeter," Albrecht said. He tapped his rod against his heavy boot. "The carpenters complained first about the new jigs. But since we used the metric units, all of our measurements came out the same."
He pointed toward the men cutting timber.
"If you recall the faces here, M'lord, some of them helped with the furnace."
Albrecht smiled.
"When they built the third roof triangle—I mean truss—on the ground, and it matched the first one perfectly, they stopped complaining."
Ezra nodded. From afar Ezra saw a couple of men looking on to the site. Some were just looking at the site while others were looking at Albrecht with a tinge of anger.
"Who are those?
Albrecht looked at where Ezra pointed. "Pay no mind to them," Albrecht said. He lowered his wooden rod, frowning at the distant men. "Ever since the blast furnace started delivering better results than regular kilns, the Smithing Guild has been demanding the techniques from Master Smith Arran."
Albrecht glared at them.
"He didn't give them the plans, of course. The writ announced by the heralds helped."
He wiped a hand on his tunic and looked back at the foundation pit.
"But sometimes they come here. They want to see if they can make me waive the right, since my name was included in the 'patent'. Captain Ashen sends guards on the sites."
Ezra looked at the onlookers again. He had a bad feeling about them.